Ashley Hevener '10 talks with Mario Valladares '17 at a business recruitment fair hosted at James Madison University in fall 2017. PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
I hate it. I never want to do that.” And then her career took her directly there, into auditing. Now, she said, “I love it.”
make sure clients are spending federal money in alignment with contractual terms,” she said, but that doesn’t mean she has to embody a “gotcha” accountant stereotype. “There’s a correct way of letting people know they maybe need to change things, to deliver news in a way that allows them to walk away not feeling completely destroyed,” she said.
EXPERIENCES Hevener points to several undergraduate GREY experiences at EMU that especially Hevener is at Kearney & Company, an equipped her for her work, including accounting firm in Alexandria, Virginia, managing both the men’s and women’s that serves the federal government. She volleyball team. manages six auditing projects for which “I had a planner, a schedule,” she said. she travels extensively, working with up “I was balancing a full school load, going to 50 clients in any given year. She is to practices and games, and on the hook “always learning new things,” she said. for the coaches and athletics director. I As an auditor, Hevener has to get to had to make sure that any one of my know the programs she’s examining so stakeholders didn’t feel less important that she can understand where risks than any other. And it was built in to might exist in their processes, and then my college life – I never realized it was develop test procedures around those happening.” risks. It’s completely different for each Another draw to EMU for Hevener client, she said, although often she can – for which her appreciation has only apply what she has learned from working grown – was its cross-cultural program. with one client to other situations. She spent six weeks one summer in There’s still the “black and white” of Nigeria, where she wore traditional Afnumbers, but Hevener’s role is to look at rican clothing, had her hair weaved, and the bigger picture – with the added chal- was given a Nigerian name by her host lenge of being compassionate. “I have to mother. On campus, she was surrounded
by people from other countries, or many who had spent significant time living abroad. Hevener’s more recent travels for work have been domestic, but past trips to developing countries with coworkers have made her realize the profundity of the cross-cultural program. “Half of them don’t have an appreciation for the experience, and they can’t wait to get back to the United States,” she said, “and the other half are kind of interested in it, but really just walk around in shock and awe.” Seeing her colleagues’ discomfort in foreign settings has made her realize “how many Americans either don’t have the opportunity to travel abroad, or choose to ignore that there are that many different cultures. That was something that I definitely picked up at EMU.” BORING? NOT QUITE Hevener knows that the fields of accounting and auditing can sound boring. But she said she gets to work with a lot of different people, and she actually likes going to work. “When I look at how many hours I work and the fact that I don’t hate my life,” she said, “I think it speaks a lot to my company.” – CHRISTOPHER CLYMER KURTZ '00
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